Another non starting thread!

[hogweed]

Originally Posted by 7.5

I will have it out tomorrow.
One odd thing which might be indicative of it going gaga is when I try the obd voltage reading I get something like 1F4 which changes when I drive but never gives an expected reading such as 125 (12.5v)

It’s worth a look. I had to open the metal case of the ECM to see the corrosion. Might not be that on yours at all of course, but it's such a common fault… good luck, Meester Bond… if you need an exchange ECM, Marinabrian will sort you one out


What's 1F4 - hex?

[7.5]

Originally Posted by hogweed

It’s worth a look. I had to open the metal case of the ECM to see the corrosion. Might not be that on yours at all of course, but it's such a common fault… good luck, Meester Bond… if you need an exchange ECM, Marinabrian will sort you one out


What's 1F4 - hex?

Would that be the £200 job Ive seen on his website? Rather avoid if possible but obv if ecu is drowned ill get it done.

No idea what the volts readout is. It changes around as i drive but never really makes sense.

[hogweed]

Originally Posted by 7.5

Would that be the £200 job Ive seen on his website? Rather avoid if possible but obv if ecu is drowned ill get it done.

No idea what the volts readout is. It changes around as i drive but never really makes sense.

It was less than that when I had my exchange unit, but Brian and Russ may have changed their prices - best ask them if it comes to that.

As always, I'm far from an expert on these things - only have my own experiences to go on - but if it's starting to get difficult, you need a session on a T4, which is the specific diagnostic machine for these cars. It will reveal a lot of things which a generic garage machine won't.

[hogweed]

Originally Posted by 7.5

I was merrily driving along when all of a sudden the engine cut out and all attempts to restart it failed. It turns over. I called the RAC and he did many things but could not get it to start. He said there were no error codes on his reader.

General consensus is that, to stand a chance of catching all errors, a T4 needs to be used.

Originally Posted by 7.5

He took readings of the fuel pump current and said it was 'pulling 6 amps'. Is this normal?

See, this is the sort of thing that would annoy me. What’s the point in measuring something if you don’t know what the results mean? If he had said “It’s pulling 6 amps, which is way too high/low, which means it’s seized/motor knackered/whatever” that might have been helpful!

In my experience, cars like this have advanced way beyond the point where breakdown guys can fix them. Even experts here struggle a lot of the time.

Originally Posted by 7.5

The RAC guy did manage to get it started for a second by squirting a can of what i assume to be easy-start into the air intake. Once he stopped squirting the engine gave up and I had to be towed home.

I mean, that would suggest that it's not getting fuel. Apart from fuel, there isn't much going on in a diesel (ie no spark etc) anyway, but the fuel has to be at sufficient pressure to atomise properly too, so you MIGHT have a pressure problem.

Does the exhaust smell of diesel when you try and start it?

Same thing happened with mine, except that when it started with the Easy-Start, it would then carry on going, so everybody said it must be fuel pressure too low to start, but high enough to keep running once it was fired up (probably right), and that meant injector leakback (which it didn’t).

A lot of people here tend to assume, if it’s a pressure problem, the reason must be mechanical – eg leakback, pump failing, pressure sensor etc, but with mine it was a water-damaged ECM AND a faulty relay behind the glove box, which was intermittently failing to energise a whole lot of sensors etc.

You have to remember that all the sensors and everything (eg fuel pressure) connect to the ECM and if the part of the ECM which measures the sensor’s resistance is itself faulty, the ECM may make bad decisions, and the car won’t start, even when everything is fine.

I suspect this is what the problem was on my car, but Brian might well correct me! When I cranked mine, diesel vapour was coming out of the exhaust in white clouds, but it wouldn’t go – so the car was getting diesel, compression was fine, but no bang. When the ECM was replaced, off we went.

That DOESN’T mean the ECM is the problem with yours – I’m just using this to illustrate the difficulty of fault-finding on these motors when you’re not an expert (or even when you are). People here who really seemed to know what they were talking about were adamant that my problem was mechanical – it wasn’t.

[7.5]

I really hope the exhaust doesn't smell of diesel as this is a 1.8 petrol!!!!

The RAC wasn't helpful at all -he barely spoke to me and the things he wrote on the sheet at the end were barely legible.

I would take it to a t4 (it was one one only a few days before the problems started) but my nearest is a 10 mile drive across London which is congested at the best of times.

I will have my ecu out to inspect once the weather clears up here. Will report what I find! I am beginning to suspect something with the ecu as at the moment I can't tie all the problems together with anything else and the problems occur after heavy weather (I had a similar problem months ago after a car wash).

Thanks for your help, at least the car is driveable now so I can get it to a garage if I can't sort it.

[hogweed]

Originally Posted by 7.5

I really hope the exhaust doesn't smell of diesel as this is a 1.8 petrol!!!!

Time to do my Abe Simpson impression… I completely failed to notice that – most of what I've said is bolleaux! Except the bit about the wet ECM.

If it's petrol, of course you’ve got all the potential issues around spark etc as well – but at least you can wheek a plug out and see if it’s sparking.

I’ve only learned little bits about how the diesels work since I’ve owned this thing, but I’d have said fault-finding was a bit easier with petrol!

Sorry about that

[marinabrian]

It's unlikely to be a wet ecu, MEMS are more robust than the inferior DDE4 diesel ECM.
The lack of fuel has been established by virtue of the car firing up on easy start.
So fuel pump/filter related then.
Check all possibilities the old fashioned way
Brian
P.S. a MEMS3 service exchange is £140, not £200

[7.5]

I have the ecu out. I can't find any screws to undo to open it up so here are some pics of the casing.


It looks a bit splashed to me.

Marinabrian if it is a fuel related issue why did the car start yesterday without me doing anything more than lifting the filter up an inch, unconnecting, then quickly reconnecting one of the fuel hoses from it, deciding there was nothing I could do and putting it back in?!
It started without any complaint whatsoever.

[trikey]

Originally Posted by 7.5

I have the ecu out. I can't find any screws to undo to open it up so here are some pics of the casing.


It looks a bit splashed to me.

Marinabrian if it is a fuel related issue why did the car start yesterday without me doing anything more than lifting the filter up an inch, unconnecting, then quickly reconnecting one of the fuel hoses from it, deciding there was nothing I could do and putting it back in?!
It started without any complaint whatsoever.

Yep it's been wet!

I had one completely submersed and the car still ran fine, like Brian said, the petrol ECUS are far more resilient to water than the diesel ones, it won't be the ECU!

[hogweed]

Sorry mate, I've got everything wrong – as Brian says, it’s a completely different ECU to mine.

And regarding lifting the fuel filter etc, even the sainted Brian can’t diagnose by remote control… probably…